Country’s largest Jewish college to buy land from N.J. Catholic university for housing
Georgian Court University has agreed to sell 42 acres of largely undeveloped land to a Lakewood Orthodox yeshiva viewed as the largest Jewish university in the United States, the college declared Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for the Catholic university declined to disclose the volume of the sale.
Beth Medrash Govoh will use the land, which involves many administrative properties together Lakewood Avenue, to assemble extra housing, a statement from Georgian Court docket claimed. The land is envisioned to start modifying hands in a couple months.
“All the lawful paperwork has been signed, but this will not occur right away,” the spokeswoman reported in an electronic mail. “There is a multi-12 months plan that includes a phased-in strategy to the transfer of ownership which is expected to start out this summertime.”
The Ocean County township has observed staggering advancement in new many years pushed by the burgeoning Orthodox Jewish local community drawn to the spot by Beth Medrash Govah and other yeshivas started in Lakewood.
Lakewood’s inhabitants has surged to 135,000 inhabitants, according to 2020 U.S. Census figures. That is a 46% raise from the 2010 populace — generating Lakewood the fifth biggest town in New Jersey.
Georgian Court, started in 1908, will use the money from the sale to construct a new nursing and well being sciences heart, convert an current setting up into a student center and modernize its dorms. In addition, the university will update its historic mansion with options to use it as administration building
“The relationship involving GCU, a Catholic University, and BMG, an orthodox Yeshiva, is what helps make this transaction distinct than quite a few other land gross sales now developing throughout the state,” Georgian Courtroom claimed in a assertion.

Georgian Court docket University options to offer 42 acres of its land in Lakewood to the biggest Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in the United States. The proceeds will fund redevelopment of campus buildings. The yeshiva will use the obtained land for housing.Photos supplied by Georgian Courtroom University
“This is not just about the exchange of land for fairness, it is a further move forward in strengthening the lengthy-standing romantic relationship amongst the two institutions of increased discovering, both of which are committed to building superb discovering alternatives for their pupils and to increasing the Lakewood local community at massive,” Georgian Court stated in its statement.
Beth Medrash Govoha board chairman Howard Friedman identified as the offer “a wonderful up coming move for the upcoming of Lakewood.”
The yeshiva experienced far more than 6,700 pupils as of 2019, in accordance to the state Department of Education.
Georgian Court’s 150-acre campus is the major of any religiously affiliated college in the condition.
The undeveloped land getting marketed was obtained along with the Gould Estate as element of the original invest in produced by the Sisters of Mercy in 1924. The university has acquired quite a few homes outside of the “gates” of the initial estate more than the decades, primarily residential attributes and properties, a spokeswoman stated.

Georgian Court University ideas to market 42 acres of its land in Lakewood to the biggest Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in the United States. The proceeds will fund redevelopment of campus properties. The yeshiva will use the obtained land for housing.Photographs provided by Georgian Court docket University
Jeff Goldman might be arrived at at [email protected]